The Philip Seymour Hoffman we didn't know

By Todd Leopold, CNN

Updated 7:48 AM ET, Tue February 4, 2014

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Photos:Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – Philip Seymour Hoffman appears in 2013's "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire." Hoffman played the role of Plutarch Heavensbee, the head gamemaker in the film. He was expected to appear in more films of the "Hunger Games" franchise, but he was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on February 2. Hoffman died of acute mixed drug intoxication, the New York medical examiner's office said. Click through the gallery for more highlights of his career.

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Photos:Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – Hoffman appears in 2012's "A Late Quartet." He reportedly learned how to play the violin during his role as a member of a string quartet. He told the Huffington Post that "I really got into the violin thing, because it's not acting, and I got off on that."

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Photos:Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – Hoffman appears with Joaquin Phoenix in "The Master" (2012). He received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations in the supporting actor category for his work in the film.

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Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – Hoffman plays manager Art Howe in the 2011 hit "Moneyball." The real Art Howe was reportedly not pleased with how he was portrayed in the film but told TMZ Sports he didn't blame Hoffman. "He was just playing the part he was given," Howe said.

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Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – Hoffman plays a DJ known as The Count in 2009's "Pirate Radio."

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Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – In 2008's "Doubt," Hoffman plays Father Brendan Flynn, a Catholic priest accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a male student. This was yet another film that got Hoffman supporting actor nominations for the Oscars and the Golden Globes.

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Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – Hoffman plays Owen Davian in 2006's "Mission: Impossible III." The actor told AOL at the time that while an action film was not usually his type of role, "it was just one of those things where all the ingredients seemed right."

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Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – Hoffman plays the title role in 2005's "Capote." He won the Oscar for best actor in a leading role for his performance as Truman Capote, who wrote "In Cold Blood." Hoffman also won a Golden Globe for the role.

Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – Hoffman plays Lester Bangs in 2000's "Almost Famous." He delivers one of the film's most memorable scenes when he advises Patrick Fugit's character, William Miller, that "the only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool."

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Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – Hoffman appears with Rebecca Pidgeon in 2000's "State and Main." He plays a screenwriter suffering from writer's block.

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Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – Jude Law and Hoffman share a scene in 1999's "The Talented Mr. Ripley." Hoffman was hailed as a scene stealer in the psychological thriller set in Italy.

Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – Hoffman played the slightly creepy production assistant Scotty in 1997's "Boogie Nights," with Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reilly.

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Philip Seymour Hoffman: Master of film – Hoffman plays George Willis Jr. in 1992's "Scent of a Woman." He is credited as Philip S. Hoffman in the movie.

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Story highlights

Philip Seymour Hoffman a private man who gave all in performance

Hoffman very active in his work: "I've seen him tear tickets," said colleague

Camaraderie of performing important to actor

Hoffman died Sunday of a suspected drug overdose

Call him Phil.

That's what most people did. It was "Phil," not "Philip," and certainly not "Philip Seymour." (He used the Seymour because there was already an actor named Philip Hoffman, and union rules prevent two actors from using the same exact name.)

He didn't stand on ceremony. At the LAByrinth Theater Company, where he was an artistic director (and where his longtime partner, Mimi O'Donnell, has the same post), he involved himself in fundraising, directing, acting -- whatever it took.

He liked to work. When he wasn't starring in a movie, he was taking a small part. When he wasn't making films, he was in theater. If he wasn't performing, he would have been a teacher, he told "Inside the Actor's Studio" in 2000.

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He had memories of times when he wasn't acting -- or working -- at all.

"Being unemployed is not good for any actor, no matter how successful you are," he once said. "You always remember what it feels like to go to the unemployment office, what it feels like to be fired from all those restaurants."

Camaraderie

Acting was his home. He knew it as a 12-year-old watching Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" in his hometown of Rochester, New York, he said in a 2010 interview.

"Immediately I knew it was a place I wanted to be," he said. "Being around people who were doing that. ... That's still kind of what makes me feel comfortable. That's why I've worked with a lot of the same people over and over again."

At the time, Hoffman -- one of four children of a Xerox staffer and a judge who divorced when he was 9 -- was more of an athlete, a three-sport participant. But a neck injury at 14 dashed his sports dreams. Instead, he hit the stage. Of course, it wasn't all about greasepaint and cheers, he admitted to The New York Times Magazine.

"There was this beautiful girl. I had a huge crush on her, and she acted," he said. "It seemed like something worth giving up baseball for."

But he was good at acting. He passed an audition to a New York state arts program, where he met Bennett Miller, who became a lifelong friend and later directed him in "Capote". Later, attending NYU, he took in all the theater world had to offer.

"You're really part of the city. The theater is all around you, and if you want to rub your shoulders against it, you can, and if you want to try for usher jobs, or internships at working theaters, you can. And I did all that," he said.

His other home was with his family. He met O'Donnell, a costume designer, at LAByrinth. The pair had three children: Tallulah, Willa and Cooper. His children were all younger than 11.

He doted on his children. He was regularly seen with them in his Greenwich Village neighborhood. He brought them to work.

He noted they were unimpressed, especially with movies.

"Movies are difficult. 'Why are we in this warehouse? Why aren't there seats? Isn't this supposed to be a show?' " he recalled them asking. "I've taken them and they watch for a bit and it's like, 'Yeah, great Daddy, that was neat. Now -- can we please go home?' "

'That's what you do'

Still, there was obviously a darkness to Hoffman that came through with his intensity. Describing "Synecdoche, New York," to the Times Magazine, he said, "I'd finish a scene, walk right off the set, go in the bathroom, close the door and just take some breaths to regain my composure."

In an appreciation, New York magazine film critic David Edelstein recalled how Hoffman seemed to revel in the unpleasant aspects of his characters, something Edelstein noticed in 2005's "Capote." Hoffman apparently fought director Miller -- a friend, mind you -- to make Truman Capote more difficult, not less.

"Ever since then, I've been conscious of how much he went out of his way to make his characters unbenign," wrote Edelstein. "It was central to his power as an actor, though I wonder if at times he didn't confuse self-hatred for integrity."

Hoffman could also be hard on himself, Edelstein added -- and Hoffman, in other interviews, agreed. While making 2010's "Jack Goes Boating," his feature directorial debut, he told an interviewer at the Toronto film festival that he was his own worst critic.

"I was a bad actor in front of me a lot," he said. "There were some days when it was real dark."

But if anything was wrong, he kept it to himself. For all his familiarity and politeness, he could be guarded. He left it all on set or on stage.

In that 2010 Toronto interview, with a touch of black humor, he talked about how hard it was to keep pushing the boulder up the hill. Why do "Othello," he asked. Why put yourself on stage for hours, convinced you're terrible, and wait for the approval -- or disapproval -- of the audience?

Because that's what makes it worthwhile, he said.

"That road to death we call life can be just burgers and booze and women and smokes and TV and magazines and really bad arts, and you just go and slide right into the hole," he said. "Or you can go, I think I'd better keep confronting and keep challenging and keep trying to make good stuff and working hard. ... That's what you do. If you don't do that, it's so easy to go to that other place."

On her Facebook page, Jessica Chastain, who co-starred with Hoffman in a 2009 production of "Othello," could only quote from that Shakespeare play.

"The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,Sing all a green willow.Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,Sing willow, willow, willow.The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans.Sing willow, willow, willow.Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones.Sing willow, willow, willow."